Coal-Fired Plants Hailed As Reliable Energy Sources
Think energy … think Texas … think oil. Right?
Not anymore.
These days, thoughts of electrical energy sources in Texas turn to coal – specifically lignite coal, a natural resource especially plentiful in The Research Valley.
In fact, as most any economic developer in the state can tell you, Texas is the nation’s number-one consumer of coal and number-five producer of coal – and a net exporter of power.
According to the Energy Reliability Council of Texas, the state has 13 electricity-generating plants that rely on coal. Two of them are in The Research Valley: the NRG Texas Generating Station near Jewett in Leon County and Twin Oaks Power near Bremond in Robertson County. NRG burns both coal and natural gas while Twin Oaks burns coal.
The same two counties are also in the running for two major power plants. TXU Energy has announced plans to construct 11 coal-burning power plants around Texas, including a $2 billion Oak Grove project in Robertson County that would create an estimated 250 permanent jobs and generate enough electricity for nearly one million homes. TXU is seeking regulatory approval for the project.
In Leon County, hopes are high that a 400-acre site atop a lignite-coal seam near Jewett will be selected for Future Gen – billed as “a near-zero-emissions” coal-fired facility. The FutureGen project is a $1 billion public-private partnership that would have a major impact on The Research Valley.
The Jewett site is one of four finalists for the FutureGen plant; Odessa in West Texas is also in the running, as are two sites in Illinois. The final selection is to be announced in summer 2007, with the plant expected to be operational by 2012.
The FutureGen Alliance – 10 energy and coal companies from around the globe – has put up $250 million toward the project, and the U.S. Department of Energy will invest another $750 million.
“If we can get this, it will be tremen dous,” says Ken Jones, executive director of the Buffalo Economic Development Corp. in Leon County. “The first two years or so there will be about 1,000 to 1,200 workers on the construction site. … Then there will be about 200 permanent jobs. There will also be a research facility that will employ 50 to 100 people. This area and our economy will be forever changed.”
That’s exactly what Tom Wilkinson and his economic development counterparts up and down The Research Valley are counting on.
“What this growth in the coal-powered plants gives us is a reliable source of power,” says Wilkinson, executive director of the Brazos Valley Council of Governments. “Reliability is key in any industry. Obviously, we have the power that industries and residential customers need, and it’s readily available all day, every day. These rolling blackouts and brownouts you hear about (elsewhere) are hugely expensive.”
Newer methods of developing electricity also have a significant impact on residential customers. Anyone who has had to endure a Texas summer under stands just how vital the availability of power can be.
“It’s predicted that there will be six million new homes in Texas by 2015,” Wilkinson says, “so reliability for home owners is just as important as it is for industries. Currently, we have a surplus of energy that we’re able to sell, but we want to be able to maintain that surplus as the number of our own residential customers grows.”
While Texas already exports more power than any other state, Wilkinson predicts that market will continue to grow. “I guess it’s our job to keep California going,” he says with a grin.
